The purpose of this paper is an integrated overview of bilinear systems (BLS) research which has evolved over the past few decades, and a new result on control of flexible a.c. transmission systems (FACTS) is presented. BLS may be derived in many cases from principles of physics, chemistry, biology, socioeconomics, and engineering. In other cases, BLS are more accurate approximations to nonlinear systems than are traditional linear systems, as shown for example by the added bilinear terms (in state and control) for the Taylor series. While an appropriately designed linear control system may be optimum relative to some quadratic performance index without added constraints, bilinear or parametric control can be designed to improve more global performance and indeed to increase the region of attainable states. Such controllability and stabilization of BLS and of a series line-capacitor controlled FACTS is presented.